Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-14
OUR SOULS RANS0MED
A BEAUTIFUL SERMON ON THE BIRTH AND
LIFE OF CHRIST.
he Whose IgnOminiOuS Birth Was the First Install
msnt Of tie Ransom Pald-The Mighty Temp
tatOns Undergone For the Sake
OF the Worlds Souls.
snccicl Ts,soran 10 the Reqiacr.


drcd persons have Joined the Brooklyn
Tabernacle, pastor, the Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, DID, during the present revival
making the communicate membership oi
this church about four thousand. Professor
Henry Eyre Browne rendered an organ
solo. second sonata in E minor, by A. g..
Ritter. The congregational singing was
like the voice of many waters, when the
pastor gave out the hymn:
lie leadeth me: o blessed thought
OwOrds with heavenly comfort fraught''
The subject of DIR. Talmage's sermon
was |. Corinthians, ch. vi, V. 20: "Ye are
bought with a price"
Your friend takes you through
HIS VALUABLE HOUSE.
You examine the arches, the frescO, the
grass-plots, the fsh-ponds, the conserva-
tories, the parks of deer, and you say
within yourself, or you say aloud: what
did all this cost ?" You see costly ap-
parel, or you see a high-mettled span of
horses harnessed with silver and gold, and
you begin to make an estimate of the
value. The man who owns q large estate
cannot instantly tell you what 1t IS all
worth. He says: al will estimate so much
for the house, so much for the furniture,
so much for laying out the grounds, so
much for the stock, so much for the barn,
so much for the equipage-adding up, in
all making this aggregate. :"
Well, my friends, hear so much about
our mansion in heaven, about its furniture
and the grand surroundings, that l want
to know how much it is all worth, and
what has actually been paid for it. l can
not complete in month or q year the
magnificent calculation; but before | get
through to-day | hope to give you the
figures. 'Ye are bought with price.
With some friends went into London
Tower to look at
THE CROWN JEWELS
of England. We walked around, caught
one glimpse of them, and being in the pro
cessiun were compelled to pass out. |
wish that to-day could take this audi
ence into the tower of Gods mercy and
strength that you might walk around just
once ut least and see the crown jewels OF
eternity, behold their briilianCe and esti-
mate their value. ''Ye are bought with
price" Now, if you have large amount
OF money to pay, you do not pay 1t all at
once, but you pay it by installments-so
much the first of January, so much the
first of April, 50 much the first of July, so
much the first of October, until the entire
debt is paid And have to tell this audi
encc that "You have been bought with n
price" and that that price has been paid
in different installmentS.
THE FIRST INsTALLMENT
paid for the clearance of our souls was the
ignominiOus birth of Christ i'll Bethlehem.
Though we may never he carefully looked
after atterwarl, our advent into the world
is carefully guarded. We come into the
world amid kindly attentions. Privacy
and silence are afforded when God launches
AN immortal soul into the world. Even
the toughest of men know enough to stand
back. But have TO tell you that In the
village on the side of the hill, there was
very bedlam of upToar when Jesus was
born. In il village capable of accommodate
ing only few hundred people, many
thousand people were crowded; aud amid
ostlers and muleteers. and camel drivers
yelling at stupid beasts OF burden, the
Messiah appeared. No silence. No
privacy. 4 better adapted place
hath the eaglet in the eyrie-hath
the whelp in the lions hair. The exile OF
heaven lieth down upon the straw. The
first night out from the palace Of heaven
spent in an Outhouse. One hour after lay
ing aside the robes of heaven, clothed i'll
wrapper of coarse linen. One would have
supposed that Christ would have made
more gradual descent, coming from
heaven first to halfway world of great
magnitude, then to Caesars palace, then
to a merchants castle in Galilec, then to
private home in Bethany, then to fish
erman's hut, and last of all TO the stable.
No! 1t was one leap from the top TO the
bottom.
Let Us open the door of
HECARAVANSARY IN BETHLEHEM
and drive away the camels. Press on
through the group of idlers and loungers.
What, . Mary, no light? mo light, "
she SAYS, "save that which comes through
the door" What, Mary, no food? None"
she says, "only that which is brought
in the sack on the journey"
Let the Bethlehem woman who
has come in here with kindly affec-
tions put back the covering from the babe
that We may look upon it. Look! Look!
Uncover your head Let us kneel. Let
all voices be hushed. Son of Mary! Son
OF God! Child of day-monarch of eter-
nity! In that eye the glance of God.
Omnipotence sheathed in that babes arm.
That voice to be changed from the feeble
plant to tha tone that shall wake the dead.
Hosanna! Hosanna! Glory he to God
that Jesus came from throne to manger
that we might rise from manger to throne,
and that all the gates are open, and that
the door of heaven that once swung this
way TO let Jesus out, now swings the other
way to let us in. Let all the bellmen Of
heaven lay hold the rope, and ring out the
news: "Behold, l bring you glad tidings
of great ioy, which shall be to all people;
for to-day is born in the city of David, a
Savior, which is Christ, the Lord"
The second installment paid for our
souls clearance was the scene in Quaran-
tania, mountainous region full of caverns,
where there are to this day panthers and
| wild beasts of all sorts; so that you must
now, the traveller says, go there armed
with knife or gun or pistol. 1t was there
that Jesus went to think and pray, and it
| was there that this monster Of he'll, more
sly. more terrific than anything that
prowled in that country-Satan himself,
met Christ. The rose in the cheek OF
Christ-the Publius Lentulus, in his letter
| to the Roman Senate, ascribed to Jesus
that rose had scattered its petals. Absti-
nence from food had thrown him into ema-
citation. The longest abstinence from food
recorded in profane history is that of the
crew of the ship Juno; for twenty-three
days they had nothing to eat. But this
sufferer had tasted month and ten days
before He broke fast.
HUNGER MUST HAVE AGoNIZED
every fibre Of the body and gnawed on the
stomach with teeth of death. The thought
of a morsel of bread OF meat must have
thrilled the body with something like
ferocity. Turn ont pack of men hungry
as Christ was a-hungered, and if they had